IBM to Launch Smart Infrastructure Lab at CMU

By Darryl K. Taft |
Posted 2010-07-29

IBM to Launch Smart Infrastructure Lab at CMU

IBM
and Carnegie Mellon
University July 29 announced their
intent to create an IBM Smarter
Infrastructure Lab at CMU "to undertake research and create technologies
to help cities, governments and industries worldwide develop smarter
infrastructures."

The
IBM statement continued, "The new lab
is part of the Pennsylvania Smarter Infrastructure Incubator (PSII) and will be
located within the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering on the CMU
campus in Pittsburgh, Pa."

Plans
are for the lab to be operational in the fall of 2010, Wayne Balta, vice
president of corporate environmental affairs and product safety at IBM,
said in an interview with eWEEK.

IBM
said:

"The IBM Smarter Infrastructure Lab at Carnegie
Mellon University will develop technologies that are consistent with IBM's Smarter Planet initiative, IBM's offerings in Business Analytics and
Optimization, and CMU's work within its Center for Sensed Critical
Infrastructure Research. The new lab will be a focal point and catalyst for
collaboration with like-minded research colleagues from IBM Research and across CMU including their
engineering, architecture, public policy and business schools. It will also be
an important resource at Carnegie Mellon University to educate and train future scientists and engineers to build smarter
cities."

"The lab is intended to drive innovation that can make the world's
physical infrastructure smarter by instrumenting it," Balta said. "As
we collectively figure out ways to deploy sensors or meters on physical
infrastructure-such as pipelines, railways, and bridges-we're going to have all
that instrumented. And all that data will come back through a common place.
Then we'll be able to look through that data, and look for patterns and see
things that are problem areas before a problem occurs. And if we can find ways
to foresee that problem we can avoid or prevent things like water main
breaks."

IBM's
statement continued:

"At the lab, researchers will collect
and analyze massive amounts of data about the physical condition and energy
efficiency of buildings, water pipelines and other infrastructure on which
governments, businesses and societies depend. One of the research initiatives
the lab will undertake is to explore physical infrastructures with innovative
digital sensor networks that will produce large amounts of new data that will
be acquired in real time and integrated with advanced analytical tools. Such
analysis will be directed to detect patterns, understand exposure to risks, and
help predict outcomes of management and operational decisions with greater
certainty.

"At Carnegie Mellon, we've been
working for a number of years on interdisciplinary research to help better
manage critical infrastructure using advanced technologies. Our goal has been
to deploy a variety of sensors to collect significant amounts of new data that
can be analyzed and turned into actionable information so that people who
build, maintain or manage infrastructure can do so in a more efficient and
cost-effective manner," said James H. Garrett, Jr., the Thomas Lord
professor and chair of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
"IBM's much appreciated support will help
establish a new, state-of-the-art lab where we will be able to showcase
research and technology development on our Pittsburgh campus. In addition to supporting us with
technology and analytical tools, our collaboration with IBM will also enable highly valuable interactions
with IBM researchers worldwide in this domain."

Government agencies at the municipal,
city, state and federal level along with businesses from diverse industry
sectors will be invited to partner with the lab. Some of these partners will
make data from their diverse infrastructures available to the lab while others
may provide complementary technologies or support additional research activity.
The lab will also be integrated with a new Collaboration and Distance Learning Center to be located in CMU's Department of
Electrical and Computer Engineering, where leaders can meet-either physically
or virtually-to learn how smarter infrastructures can make them more
competitive".

"Making the infrastructure of our cities, communities, and industries more
instrumented, interconnected and intelligent can make it more sustainable from
both an economic and an environmental perspective," Balta said in a
statement. "With Carnegie Mellon
University's renowned reputation in engineering and IBM's
leadership regarding a Smarter Planet and business analytics, this new lab can
drive innovation and develop new technologies to help leaders worldwide
optimize their use of finite resources."

IBM Partners with Tridium

Meanwhile,
in related news, IBM on July 28 announced it
plans to "work with Tridium ... to develop new technology and solutions
that will allow companies to maximize efficiency of their new and existing
buildings and facilities while keeping an eye on profits."

IBM's statement continued:

"Tridium, part of Honeywell's
Automation and Control Solutions group, is a global provider of software and
embedded hardware that allows for integration and control of the numerous
devices, systems and networks found in commercial buildings and retail
structures.

Tridium's Niagara and Sedona software enable
the integration and control of virtually every system and device in any
facility from HVAC equipment, lighting and generators to gas pumps, ovens, and
medical devices. The companies plan to integrate IBM Tivoli Monitoring for Energy Management and
IBM Maximo Asset Management enterprise software
with Niagara and Sedona to create secure, Internet-enabled networks that will
allow for new levels of energy management, integrate thousands of disparate
systems and devices, and analyze vast streams of real-time data.

Applying IBM's advanced software will let managers know
if their buildings and the systems inside are operating at maximum performance
and profitability, a major concern in many industries, including retail."

"Our
work to create smarter buildings will be enhanced by Tridium technology that
allow many of the systems that constitute a building-heat, water, sewage and
electricity-to be controlled and automated," David Bartlett, vice
president of industry solutions at IBM
Software Group, said in a statement. "Together we'll be able to give
clients greater intelligence and control of their buildings and of the physical
world."

"Our technologies embrace many communications methods in order to support
the integration of these disparate systems and devices, facilitating better
control and awareness," Steve Fey, president of Tridium, said in a
statement. "Our focus has always been on the integration and
interoperability of all of these systems, whether wired or wireless. Now, with IBM,
we can deliver an end-to-end IP-based infrastructure for any type of building
and deliver real-time information, asset intelligence and analysis from
virtually every device and sensor in the network for decision support around
the globe."